


A Slice of Cake

by rainbowcreates



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Father's Day, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Lee Taeyong Are Best Friends, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:22:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24842986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowcreates/pseuds/rainbowcreates
Summary: It's Father's day and Lee Taeyong's bake shop has a lot of stories to tell.
Kudos: 6





	A Slice of Cake

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Father's Day! This short story is a mix of different people's situations during father's day, enjoy reading!

The sun was slowly bidding its goodbye as Lee Taeyong also said his farewell to his last customer of the day, turning the wooden carved open sign of his bake shop called,‘The Sweet Escape’. He walked back in the chilly kitchen that was once filled with cakes, removing his white apron and leaving him in a hand-knitted cream hoodie as he started tidying up with a damped towel in his hand. After clearing all the metal countertops and tables from frostings, fondants, sprinkles and chocolate chips, he grabbed a mop from the side and started cleaning the floor. He was almost done when he stepped on an odd looking confetti, picking it up as he eyed the material. Half of it was colored green while the other half was gold, the light of the room reflecting on it as a smile slowly drawn in his face upon recalling earlier events that took place on the same place. 

It was midnight and Taeyong and Kim Doyoung, his one and only loyal assistant that also happened to be his best friend was finishing the last designs for pre-ordered cakes that were due the next day when Doyoung’s phone started blasting from his pocket. Turning it on speaker as he continued to work, a loud “Thank God for answering.” echoed in the room. Taeyong let out a giggle as he eyed Doyoung who only rolled his eye at him before looking back on the phone, Taeyong easily knew who owned that voice, it was Doyoung’s younger cousin, Kim Jungwoo. 

“What do you need Jungwoo?” The elder cousin asked, as he continued piping personalized messages with his best font. “Am I on speaker? I could literally hear my voice echoing!” The younger complained, making Doyoung groan that in contrast was making Taeyong laugh the life out of him. 

“So you are still in the shop.” Doyoung’s brows arched upon hearing this, abandoning the cake he has been working on as he placed the phone by his ear.

Taeyong watched the younger’s back as he stood by door, eyeing the clock as it turned midnight. Looking back to the door only to find there was no sign of his best friend and the kitchen door was sprung open. Dropping the fondant character of a customer’s father, he followed his best friend outside and there stood Jungwoo with two large plastic bags in both of his hands. 

“Hi Taeyong!” He greeted cheerfully, waking the two in their trance as they hurriedly approached the younger with Taeyong assisting him with his bag that was strangely light and Doyoung searching for anything that would suppose he was hurt. Continuing as they went in with mixed questions starting from “Are you okay?” that quickly shifted to “Are you involved in a fraternity?” making Jungwoo too overwhelmed on the attention from the two elders, chuckling at them as he pat their shoulders. “I’m fine.” He assured happily as he sat on the wooden counter stool, rocking it gently. “I just need your help.”  
  
The two elder watched fondly as Jungwoo sets his laptop up, finding out the kitchen had the strongest internet connection around the area. The three of them wore matching green party hats with gold stripes upon Jungwoo’s request, his pre-ordered chocolate cake was set up neatly beside him with gray ruffles and fondant characters of different medical apparatuses. Doyoung and Taeyong were standing at both sides holding party poppers that Jungwoo personally made with his father’s favorite colors. What once was a white background was now filled with green, gold and gray balloons that was inside Jungwoo’s plastic bags. Everything was perfect and all that was left was the person from the other side of his laptop and as soon as the call connected, that was the cue for the party poppers to pop. 

“Happy Father’s Day Pa!” Jungwoo greeted, happily showing the cake at the laptop with a smile that was so lovely it made Doyoung smile seeing his cousin so happy and that made Taeyong smile. 

The memory made Taeyong smile as he continued to mop the floor, tucking the confetti into his jeans. Before leaving the kitchen his eyes trailed to Doyoung’s apron that happened to be misplaced around the corner, smiling as he thought of the younger and the decision he made to make his best friend take the day off. While folding the apron into place, his mind wandered off to his memories once again. 

After Jungwoo’s mini celebration of father’s day with his father who was working abroad to financially support him, they went back to their working mode but this time they happened to be energized by the happiness emitted younger. 

Doyoung was now finishing the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with white frostings and Taeyong’s own designed fondant exclusive for the special day. Taeyong on the other hand was busy checking all the pre-ordered cake, ranging from big extravagant five layer cakes with numerous designs to simple ones that had heartwarming messages written in frosting by Doyoung’s beautiful lettering. With a smile on Taeyong’s face, he was left with one last cake to check but his smile was washed completely upon opening its box. 

Covered with only a white fondant, no designs, no sprinkles and no heartwarming messages. The caked looked like a blank canvas. Bewildered by it, he quickly opened the spreadsheet on his tablet that held all the details of the cake from its flavor to ingredients to avoid, everything he had to know was in that spreadsheet. Upon finding the spreadsheet he placed the tablet on the side as he started to find the one more thing that would trace the cake to its details, the order code pasted on the box. Gently removing the cake from its box, he turned the nude colored box upside down but to add more in Taeyong’s stress, the code was nowhere to be seen. He stared down at the cake as his hands started to shake, feeling it clamped as he thought of a way to save the cake. 

Doyoung was finally done with the cupcakes, placing every one of it neatly on the glass cases by the counter while some were placed in the shop’s signature nude colored boxes, wrapped neatly with a white ribbon that had the shop’s logo attached on one end of it. While he was watching the clock’s fingers move, he felt his phone vibrate from the pocket of his jeans, it was a text from his grandmother. Remembering why he arrived so early, he went back to the chamber only to find a tensed Taeyong, pacing from side to side while shaking his hands uncontrollably. 

“Are you okay?” Doyoung asked as he approached him carefully, his mere presence was able to make the elder calm his senses. 

“I’m okay, this cake is not!” Taeyong dramatically stated, pointing towards the cake as he covered his eyes using his free hand. Scratching his nape, Doyoung’s eyes examined around the area until it landed on where Taeyong was pointing at. 

The elder continued to shut his eyes preparing himself for Doyoung to scold him but his thoughts was interrupted by soft giggles. Slowly removing his hands he was met by Doyoung who was on his knees as his laughter resonated around the chilly chamber. Taeyong froze in his spot, on a different situation he would have loved to hear Doyoung’s laughs but right now he only felt embarrassed thinking how foolish he appeared to be.

“Why are you laughing?” He asked softly once Doyoung’s laugh died down, staring at his sneakers as he felt his ears turned a bright shade of pink. 

Doyoung quickly noticed this and pat the boy’s pink hair making Taeyong look up at him as he shrugged. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to laugh.” 

The younger sighed as he approached the plain white cake, staring at it as a smile drew on his face. “Remember when you told me I could use the ingredients here in the shop for free if ever there was an occasion?” Doyoung asked, looking back at Taeyong as he nodded slowly. Still with a smile in his face he looked back at the cake, “I actually baked one for today’s occasion, It’s for my grandfather.” 

Taeyong and Doyoung were friends for almost ten years and he knew from that smile how heavy this topic was but he also knew that his best friend would only talk when he is ready. Taeyong would never force him to open up but once he did Taeyong made sure he was always there for him, it even took Doyoung a while before finally admitting to Taeyong that he was adopted and his foster parents, that never returned left him to his foster grandparents. 

He walked slowly beside his best friend, nudging him lightly as he gave him a encouraging smile. “We have more than three hours before the shop opens, my shoulders are ready, my arms are ready, my ears are ready, my mind is ready and my heart is always ready.” Taeyong said, while pointing at every specific body part one by one, a thing he did ever since they were in middle school. 

Doyoung breathed heavily before opening his mouth and finally telling the elder the parts of the stories that he never knew. “His Alzheimer’s is getting worse day by day, he’s starting to forget a lot of things.” Doyoung momentarily stop as he took a deep breathe as Taeyong wrapped his arms around the younger’s shoulder his silent way of telling him that he was beside him. “Even me.” He continued, opening his eyes and letting out a broken laugh. “I’m not absolutely shocked by that because how would he remember someone he is not even related to but he remembers a kid who loves to bake cakes and the first cake the kid gave him was covered in plain white.” Doyoung said, smiling to himself as tears formed in his eyes and from that moment Taeyong knew, his best friend needed this day. 

Taeyong smiled to himself as he placed the apron back in its shelf, his apron also placed besides it. Turning off the lights and calling it a day, he wore his backpack that was placed below the counter and was about to head out when he heard bells jingling. Thinking there was a cat around whose collar had a bell he started looking around the shop but he could not find where it came from. He frowned as he stopped also noticing the bells stoped, he walked again and the bells started ringing again. Looking back to his bag only to find three key chains with small bells, a sun, a cat and a watermelon key chain. Tilting his head to the side before his eyes caught a sticky note on the floor, bending down as he picked it up and his mouth gaped upon realization. 

‘Hi Mister! Thanks for the cake, it tasted good. We’re sure superman would love it.  
-the Lee Musketeers’ 

Taeyong laughed to himself as he stood up, keeping the note and making sure the key chains were secured before finally leaving his bake shop. He biked his way home, traveling into memory lane into one of the clients that would surely leave a mark in his heart. 

This was the step Taeyong dreaded the most, interviewing their clients. The two of them often did it together but during special occasions where the order numbers doubled they had to separate to get the job done quickly. Taeyong practically begged Doyoung to change his mind but instead the younger assured him that he assigned nice clients and he would be one call away if hell breaks loose. Doyoung’s assurance happened to change Taeyong’s mind and unknowingly he enjoyed the interview, that was until he met the last ones. 

Taeyong felt like his occupation suddenly shifted from baker into daycare teacher, whose students were poking each other’s eyes with crayons. His last clients happened to be siblings, respectively Mark Lee, Lee Jeno and Lee Donghyuck. Everything was prim and proper but the moment Taeyong asked questions, he could finally view why Doyoung never liked the idea of having kids. 

“He liked fruit cakes!”  
“No! He loved chocolates cakes!”  
“That’s your favorite! Superman used to eat carrot cakes with me!” 

“All of Superman’s things were painted blue!”  
“All of the clothes he wore was colored black!”  
“Who wants a colored black cake?”

Taeyong was terrified at the three teenage boys shouting angrily at each other but what bugged him the most was how they talked about their father in past tense. He looked down his notepad and frowned, three different answers for every category, even in terms of cake size and layers. All of their attention was taken by someone opening the door, Taeyong beamed upon seeing Doyoung from the other side of the door but slowly sunk down his seat upon seeing his annoyed persona. “Can you speak like the supposed behave kids that you are? You’re shouting like you are miles apart from each other.” Slamming the door as he left that silenced the kids in an instant.

Taeyong massaged his temples and coughed before going through his notepad again, eyeing the three that looked like angels if they keep their mouth shut. “The three of you have been talking about your fath-”

“Superman.” The three of them said in unison. 

“Right, superman.” Taeyong nodded as he unknowingly doodled down his notepad. “As I was saying, the three of you have been talking about superman in the past tense. Why don’t we make a cake of things he is interested right now?” Taeyong smiled at the boys but all three of them avoided his eyes, Jeno started fiddling with the ends of his shirt, Mark focused on the Maneki-neko placed on the back shelf and Donghyuck looked outside the window, watching stray cats fighting. 

Taeyong rubbed his nape upon getting the silent treatment, thinking earlier’s fiasco was far better than this. “Where’s your mother by the way? I’m sure she could help us.” He asked, smiling awkwardly at the boys to at least eased the awkwardness but they remained quiet. 

A minute or two has passed before Mark sighed, looking at his younger brothers as they nod at him.“Our father and mother died in a car crash last year.” Mark started, looking down at his sneakers as they made squeaking sounds upon clashing on the tiles but none of them seem to care at the moment. 

Taeyong was waiting for Mark to continue, totally shocked with the revelation when Donghyuck continued, “Our mother used to buy the cake and this is our first time picking and celebrating without them so we don’t really know what the perfect cake would looked like.”

Feeling he brought the whole energy down, Taeyong felt awful. “I’m sorry about that.” He quietly said, but all of them quickly shook their heads and smiled at Taeyong. “We’re sorry for being so burdensome.” Mark mumbled looking down which the two also did. 

Taeyong smiled fondly at the boys making them somehow relieved, looking down his doodle and an idea popped in his mind. “You know what a perfect cake would look like?” He asked as the kids gave him each a confuse expression, watching him draw rapidly on the notepad. “Three layers for three different flavors superman side by side with wonder woman, and the Lee Musketeers! Then you could also write your personal messages below!” Taeyong enthusiastically explained, revealing his doodle at the three boys as his eyes gleamed like he was a child like them once again. 

Feeling proud of his imagination, he was expecting the boys to mirror the same excited feeling but the three boys were just quietly staring at the doodle blankly. Feeling embarrassed he looked down as he slowly retrieved the doodle from their hold biting his lip, “I know it’s a bit weir-”

“It’s perfect.” His eyes shot up upon hearing their youngest, Jeno who became quiet on the mention of last year’s events. Their eyes were shining as water filled up and suddenly he was attacked by three pairs of little arms wrapping him in a hug. “Thank you! Thank you!” They cried, staining his dress shirt with tears of joy, the aroma of baby powder filing up his nose and three sweet teenage boys filling up his heart with joy. 

Turning into a corner towards a shortcut to his apartment he stopped abruptly as a car sped from the other side, frowning upon realizing he was almost hit by the car. Glancing to his side upon hearing the flower shop’s door open and quickly apologizing to the elderly for blocking the door. He was about to start biking again when someone called his name, looking back it was another client that he happened to create a bond with, Jung Jaehyun.

“Are you heading home now?” The boy asked, smiling as his dimples showed. Taeyong nodded his head before recognizing that the flower shop beside him was the one Jaehyun’s mother owned. 

“Did she like the cake?” Taeyong asked, as he continued to look around recognizing some of the flowers seen through the glass walls that Jaehyun specifically wanted to see on the cake like the pink incarnations, pink tulips and red roses that were created using fondant. “She loved it, thanks Taeyong.” Jaehyun smiled, the admiration showing from his eyes as the two bid their goodbyes. 

Now if Taeyong would choose one time the two of them really clicked, he would always answer the first time they met which was one of his favorite interviews. It was the same occasion but Jaehyun view the day differently, he asked for a cake that looked like a picnic basket with fruits and flowers coming out from it. Taeyong was not the person to ask for personal questions most especially if it was not needed, most of the time he would assume the certain occasion their clients wanted to celebrate.

The meeting was almost finish when Taeyong suddenly remembered one last detail that would surely complete the cake. “Would you like to write a father’s day message?” Taeyong asked, retrieving his cake sketch from Jaehyun and getting a small piece of paper from the side for him to write on. “It’s for my mother actually.” Jaehyun answered, smiling as he received the paper and pen. “Birthday message then?” 

“No.” Jaehyun answered quickly as if he was expecting that question, stopping midway from writing as he glanced up to Taeyong, chuckling to himself before continuing writing. “You see my mother is also my father and that role of hers in my life is beyond extraordinary. I never felt the need to look for him because my mother did not just fill that hole in my heart, I actually never felt there was one from the overflowing love she was giving me.” Taeyong was left speechless as Jaehyun’s smile grew wider and brighter as he spoke with pure love. He smiled at the elder’s reaction before giving the piece of paper that held a six word message that if Taeyong would be asked was already enough, ‘Thank you for being my home.’

Before turning to the last street that lead to his apartment he looked back one last time and there outside the flower shop was Jaehyun and his mother having a great time with each other’s presence. 

As Taeyong recalled all those memories he could say to himself that even if he had no one to celebrate this day with he was happy that his creations served as a way to connect people, to relive their beautiful memories with each other and to make new ones that they would treasure for a very long time. He thought this day would be just a regular day for him but the people around him proved it otherwise. 

Taeyong was happily walking up to his apartment, the sound of the bells from the key chains were music to his ears. Upon arriving on his floor, he fished his keys located in his bag but upon arriving at the door the room was already open. Grabbing the small potted plant by his doorstep, he was getting ready for anything or anyone inside his apartment. 

With a swift kick, the door flew open and he was ready to throw the pot on the figure sitting on the dining room but the small candle in the middle of the table was enough light for him to realize who it was. Both of them exhibited the same shocked expression, their resemblance easily noticeable even from afar. Taeyong slowly put the plant down, locking the door as he went in, avoiding eye contact from the elder as he searched for his eyes. He continued doing his business, entering his room and pretending he was alone in his apartment as the elder remained, quietly waiting. 

Thinking everything that was happening was silly, he groaned to himself and dropped his bag with a loud thud in his room, annoyed on how easily his mood shifted. He changed into his pajamas, sighing as he went out of his room and eyed the man. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked monotonously as he remained in his position, far away from the man. The man smiled before gesturing his hand to the candle, “Could you sit down first and slice me a cake?” Feeling too tired to deal with this, he obediently followed the man. 

Annoyed on the dim lights he turned on the bulb in the dining table only to realize where the candle was coming from earlier, his brows furrowed as he pointed the cake. “This is...” he trailed as he took a sharp intake of breathe, bringing his hand to his mouth for he could not believe what he is seeing. 

“This is from your store.” The man continued, smiling as he looked up to Taeyong whose eyes were automatically filled with water. This was the dream cake he drew way before when he was young, the drawing he showed his father that he thought he never spared to look at to end up losing it, the cake he would always tell Doyoung when they were younger and the cake that Doyoung was secretly doing with the excuse of ‘practicing his abilities’. It was a pink cake with various baking materials around it, a small candle on the side and in the middle there was a doctor who was carrying a child in his shoulders wearing a baker’s outfit with the hat falling on one of his eye. 

The man stood up and brought his arm around the boy’s shoulder, whose eyes were still plastered on the cake and tears falling from his eyes. “Look, Taeyong, son, I may not be the perfect father but please remember that I am proud on what you have become of.” The man spoke, smiling to himself as he lovingly tapped the boy’s shoulder with tears also filling up his eyes. 

His breathing hitched as he continued to talk to Taeyong who was already a crying mess, shaking and hiccuping. “I’m not angry or sad that you did not take up medicine like me, I’m angry on myself for letting you think that not choosing what you are passionate on would change the fact that I love you.” His father finished by wrapping his arms gently on the boy, engulfing him into the warmest hug that Taeyong has felt in his whole life. 

“Let’s go home?” His father asked that made Taeyong smile, grabbing the cake as he faced the man. 

“Here’s your cake dad, happy father’s day.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy father's day! I wish my work somehow placed a smile on your faces. 
> 
> Thank you for reading my story <3
> 
> let's be friends!  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/rainbowcreates)


End file.
